Paved with Good Intentions
by Scott the Wanderer
Summary: Harry makes the ultimate sacrifice for the woman he loves.
1. Chapter 1

I apologize for writing this and not the next chapter of Harry Potter: No Good Deed goes Unpunished or Harry Potter the Undead Slayer. The idea just would not leave my head at all. I needed to get it down on paper.

I do not own Harry Potter or anything you recognize herein. I am making no money off of this.

* * *

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore had just given his closing speech for the year. Unlike most years he had precious little to say that was good compared to the awful news of Voldemort's return and Cedric Diggory's death. Once more he had failed his charges and Harry Potter had been forced to save the day. Well, save as much of it as he could. It was far more than most could have done. Not many people could duel Voldemort to a stalemate. Dumbledore would be the first to admit he did not win his duels with his former student. Like Harry, he had always fought to a draw. The difference was, Albus had more than a century of experience and he'd had help.

"Headmaster?"

"Sorry, my boy, I believe I was woolgathering." Dumbledore was so deep in introspection he had not noticed the Great Hall go quiet or the approach of the very young man he had been thinking of. "You'll have to ask your question again, I am afraid."

"Understandable sir, I have been thinking very hard over things the last few days." Harry Potter gave a half smile. "I just wanted to address everyone. I feel I owe to Cedric and everyone else."

"Harry, it is not you who owes anything." Dumbledore smiled warmly. "Feel free, I doubt that anyone would begrudge you a few words."

"Thank you Headmaster." Harry smiled before he turned to step up to the podium. He'd been planning what to say since he had gotten out of the hospital wing. Using a bit of transfiguration he had learned this year, he made the stool the right height before stepping up. "If I may have all your attention, I have a few things to say. As many of you know I am Harry Potter." He chuckled as the Weasley Twins did a fair impression of being surprised by this statement. "I was unfairly chosen to compete in the TriWizard Tournament through the malfeasance of a Deatheater. Despite facing off against two Wizards and a Witch that were by far my superiors, I won. I wish I could say it was god luck, but alas it was not. The very man who put my name in the Goblet of Fire also robbed the real Champions of their rightful glory. He helped rob one of my friends lives."

"I am not telling you this so you will lionize or pity me. I do not want either from you. No, I tell you this because hard choices are coming. Voldemort has returned and he will bring back the Blood War again." Harry paused for a moment. "He's already started with the murder of a good man who would have stood in the Light against him. Now is the time when you have to decide: Do you stand for what is Right or do you bow down to Murderous fiend who tortures his followers for fun? Only you can decide that. I know which side I am on, though for me it was never a choice. I stand against Voldemort and his evil."

"Unfortunately that stance effects others in my life. Voldemort is too cowardly to strike me in person. He will strike at me through those I love and cherish." Harry continued, his voice cracking a little bit. "All my life I have wanted Friends and eventually Family. I found that here in Hogwarts. I found a Brother and a Sister who even though we fight, we will always be there for what matters." He looked directly at Hermione and Ron with a warm smile. "I have found many friends who have helped me with tasks great and small." He looked around the room catching individual people's eyes for a moment. "And this year I found love. A woman touched my heart much the same way my mother touched my father's so many years ago." Looking to the Ravenclaw table he found the eyes of the woman who he loved so dearly. "I should be the happiest man to walk the Earth, but there is a shadow hanging over it all. Everyone who calls me Friend or Brother is in danger now. That danger pales next to the danger the woman who calls me her Lover. Voldemort and his followers with strike out at her. I have no doubt she could beat any of them in a fair duel, even Voldemort himself. But liken the cowards they are, they never attack alone and never with warning."

"They will hound her and her family. A family I love dearly as well. So it is not just her I am worried for." Harry sighed softly as he saw the woman's eyes flash with sadness for a moment. "Abandoning her is not an option. If we broke up, Voldemort would still kill her and slaughter her family just for having been with me once. So I have no other option…OBLIVIATE!"

There had been some in the crowd who had wondered just what Harry Potter was attempting. Unfortunately, nobody managed to piece it together until the spell was spoken. By then it was too late. All memory of the events Harry Potter had selected for his spell left the minds of everyone present. New memories were seeded in everyone replacing what was erased. The crowd would not even remember that Harry spoke at the Leaving Feast. In fact nobody in the Hall even knew what happened save one Potions Master. So when Harry exited the Hall while others were gathering their wits, Severus Snape was hot on his heels.

* * *

"Just what do you think you are doing, Potter. I know you are trying to protect her, but the Dark Lord will just pluck it from your mind." Severus Snape grabbed the arm of the Boy-That-Lived and spun him around. "She won't even know why she is being targeted you Dunderhead."

"I knew you wouldn't be affected." Harry was barely holding himself together. He'd just erased all the reasons the love of his life had chosen him. "The most advanced occlumens in the world. Quite a feat. I just beg of you, please hide what you know in the most secure part of your mind. She has done nothing to you, don't let him kill her."

"Blasted boy, if the Dark Lord find out it will not be from my mind." Snape sneered. "How are you going to protect her?"

"Obliviating myself is the only way." Harry replied after a moment. "I'll know I love someone deeply, but I'll never connect it with her. She'll find someone new, as for me. I arranged a potion to be delivered my sixth year and ordered Dobby to make sure I drink it. Provided I live that long."

"You…you…you…I cannot think of an insult dire enough to call you. If Lily were alive today she would likely hex you to London and back." Severus seethed for a moment. "I will protect your secret, with my very soul Potter. Know this, if that woman suffers because of this, I will make existence a living hell."

"It already will be, Professor Snape. I just won't know it." Harry gave a small half smile before pointing his own wand between his eyes. "Obliviate!"


	2. Chapter 2

Because people demanded

I do not own Harry potter and I make no money off this.

It had been forty years since that speech after the TriWizard Tournament. Forty years that Harry Potter had been literally living a Hellish existence. Thirty seven of those years he knew exactly why he was being eaten alive from the inside. Snape was a right bastard when he included that memory in with the others. So Harry had been tormented with the fact that he himself was the only reason he was miserable.

Ginny had understood that he did not truly love her. In truth she did not truly love him either. Her true love had effectively died in the Battle of Hogwarts. She had assumed the same had been true for him or close enough. So they settled together united in the grief of a future that would never be. Harry had been thankful for that, as he surely would have fallen into the bottle and never climbed out otherwise. As much as the media blasted her at times, Ginny had been a good wife and an excellent mother.

Of course Fate had also been incredibly cruel to him in some ways. 'She' had come to him decades ago. Her new husband was completely sterile. Some curse he had taken during the War had made sure he would never sire a child. They had wanted children so badly. In irony of ironies 'Her' husband insisted that Harry be the sperm donor. It was as if this was some extra penance for what he had done so many years ago. It was even joked around that he could do it the old fashioned way, but Harry had nixed that. Artificial insemination had created three wonderful children in the end, children who never knew that 'Uncle Harry' was actually their father.

Today was another cruel day to Harry. It was a year since Ginny's funeral. Actually, it had been a double funeral. After little Lily graduated from Hogwarts with a record that surpassed Aunt Hermione's, Ginny had joined the workforce. Harry had been thrilled for her. Being a Cursebreaker like her favorite brother had been Ginny's dream come true. They had been quite a team at Gringotts, breaking the curses on Tombs that other teams couldn't even hope to touch. In fact the tougher the curse, the less trouble they seemed to have. They were considered unkillable. Unfortunately an IED does not care if you are muggle or wizard, it kills indiscriminately. There weren't even bodies left, just pink mist.

The Eulogies had been beautiful for both Bill and Ginny. Well all of them save for King Ragnok's. Though his vow to destroy the terrorists who had taken two of his favorite humans from the world had been what Goblins considered touching, especially when he promised to offer Harry and Fleur the heads on pikes. Still, Harry could barely summon the urge to grieve. In some ways he felt free again. Then he felt guilty for feeling that way.

He was now at some dive bar, staring at a glass of Whiskey. He was always like this after having dreams about 'Her' but it was worse today. Last night had been the one where he never obliviated everyone, where he married 'Her' and they had many, many children. He didn't have Ginny around to help take his mind off the thoughts of what could have been. In fact he would never have Ginny comfort him again. That realization hurt nearly as much as the ache he caused himself by not being with 'Her'.

"Mind if I take this seat, Harry?"

Harry didn't even have to look. He knew the exactly moment 'She' had entered the bar. He knew 'Her' perfume anywhere. The subtle scent of vanilla seemed to just penetrate to a deep part of Harry's brain. And 'Her' voice was the one that haunted his dreams even before the Bastard Snape slipped him the memories.

"No, I don't mind at all." Harry lied. He did mind. He desperately wanted her to take the seat and conversely wanted her to just leave. Either was torture to him, but the later would be slightly less painful in the short run. "How are the children?"

"Oh, they have adjusted to their Dad not being around." 'She' answered. "And they are hardly children. Our youngest are the same age remember. Ginny had been tickled pink about that. How is Albus?"

"Albus is fine now. I think the portrait helped a lot." Harry shook his head. Albus had been devastated by his mother's death, mostly because they had a terrible fight via firecall just a previous day. "He's expecting his first with Amelia."

"Hmm, I have missed so much." 'She' responded. "I have missed you. When are we going to be close again?"

"I wasn't sure you would want me around." Harry responded with another lie. "I didn't want to be a reminder of what you lost."

"You have always protected me, Harry." 'She' said softly. "Even when I don't want to be protected. In this case it is hurting me. I need my Harry back. I can't face the world without him anymore."

Harry turned to look at 'Her' face. She was angelic in almost every sense of the term. It was hard to believe she was nearing sixty as she looked only a tiny bit older than she had during the TriWizard Tournament. He doubted she had a wrinkle on her entire body. Not that she seemed to have aged much since the Battle of Hogwarts. Looking into her beautiful eyes he could see that she was being honest. She truly wanted him around.

"You won't have to." Harry said after a moment. "I never could tell you no."

"Actually, you have Harry. You told me no the one time I desperately wanted to hear you say it." 'She' responded softly. "It's why I fell in love with you back then."

"What?" Harry blinked in shock as the memory clicked. He had indeed told 'her' no. She had offered herself to him and he'd refused as it was not out of love. She had told him just hours before he obliviated her that it was that moment that started her on the path of loving him. "You can't…I…no…"

"Did you think Severus only returned the memories to you?" 'She' asked. "He was more devious with me. He placed them in my mind with a trigger that if my husband ever died they would return. I have known for a year Harry Potter what you did. I was furious at first. There were several times I nearly came to your house and killed you for what you did to me. But I realized you did it out of love. You loved me so much you were willing to give me up so I would live and live happily while you were living in Hell. So I forgive you."

"So what do we do now?" Harry asked timidly.

"It is simple, you will starting courting me and we will marry on your birthday like you promised forty years ago." 'She' stated simply. "That is not optional."

"Whatever you say…Fleur."


End file.
